1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a tool for removing broken pole butts from the hole where the pole had been placed in the earth.
2. Prior Art Statement
Poles supporting telephone cables, electrical cables, traffic signs, advertising signs and the like often are sheared off basically at the ground level when impacted by moving vehicles. Such poles also are subject to decay or other forms of destruction and the owner of the pole is faced with the challenge of removing the remainder of the pole, i.e. the pole butt from the earth. For instance, when the pole is broken off at ground level, and it is impossible to remove the pole butt without calling for a backhoe to dig around the pole butt sufficiently to wrap a choke chain around the pole butt to lift the pole butt from the mounting hole. The backhoe and its operator present an extra expense to the company owning the pole in addition to the delay in removal of the pole butt caused by employment of the backhoe and thus excavation is disruptive and labor intensive. Therefore, there exists a great need for a pole butt removal tool that may be quickly installed in the pole butt and used to extract the pole without excavating the earth around the pole thus resulting in great labor and cost savings.
Abandoning the pole butt in the earth leaves an environmentally unfriendly product in the earth. As infrastructure is continuously installed, the possibility of abandoning a usable site is not an option. Repositioning the pole may not be possible as adjacent infrastructure might be present or engineering factors such as the length of line available particularly in utility installations may prevent relocation. Thus, it is important and environmentally friendly to reuse the location of the previous pole for installing the replacement pole. Accordingly, a pole butt removal tool that preserves a pole location is needed thus preventing disruption of adjacent infrastructure and providing cost savings in relocating lines and the like.
Extraction of the pole butt by driving a grounding rod into the butt, attaching a large grip to the grounding rod and attempting to extract the pole free of the ground with a winch usually results in the rod disengaging from the pole butt and projecting toward the operator is extremely hazardous to the workers. Though driving a ground rod into the stump for extraction of the pole butt sometimes succeeds, the large diameter copper ground rod becomes part of the waste stump and is lost resulting in an increased cost to the utility. It is obvious that a tremendous need exists for a pole butt removal tool that safely, effectively and in an environmentally friendly manner removes a pole butt from the earth while effectively leaving a usable hole in the earth for insertion of a new or replacement pole.
It is known to remove a small fence post by threading a conventionally threaded lag screw or threaded eyelet into a hole drilled into a broken or rotted fence post butt and using a hydraulic jack or engine lifting device to extract the post butt. For instance, see the explanation from Timber Click, Old Woodyard, Watling Street, Bean, Nr Dartford, Kent DA2 8AH which may be found at the corporation website http://www.timberclick.com/index.php/london/fence-post-removal/. Though a hole is drilled in the post butt and the conventionally threaded lag screw or threaded eyelet is inserted, many turns of the threaded eyelet or lag screw is required as the largest of lag screws has a thread pitch of at least 4 threads per inch. Thus, even the shortest of lag screws or threaded eyelets require at least three inches of penetration into the wood for effective removal of the post butt requiring at least twelve turns. Therefore, the great need for a pole butt removal tool having a non-conventional thread pitch still exists in order to provide for rapid insertion of the removal tool and rapid removal of the tool from the pole butt after extraction of the pole butt from the earth.
It is also known to provide an extraction tool for removal of pole butts. For instance, see the U.S. Pat. No. 7,686,359 B1 issued on 30 Mar. 2010 to William Arlis Walker. The device is provided with a drill bit inserted into the end of a partially threaded rod wherein a hole is drilled in a pole butt with the drill bit, the threaded portion of the device following the drill bit into the hole. As the drill bit is only 5 inches long and is not removed from the pole butt after drilling begins, the threaded portion of the rod compacts additionally drilled wood below the threaded portion thus increasing the difficulty of threading the threaded portion into the pole butt and potential loss of thread engaging integrity. Additionally, the thread pitch of the threaded portion is four threads per inch thus requiring 48 turns to thread the twelve inch threaded portion into the pole butt. Accordingly, there is a great need for a pole butt removal tool that is rapidly attached to a Kelly bar, inserted into a previously drilled 24 inch deep hole in a pole butt, turned only a few times to full engagement with the pole butt and thereafter used to extract the pole butt from the earth.